Read Dragon Fall: Masters of the Flame 3 (Mating Fever) for Free Online

birds with no one to feed them.
    Turning back, she eyed him down the length of her nose. “Then maybe you shouldn’t waste your riches bribing me to leave.”
    “For you, I will find a way.”
    She had no doubt the revenue the Keep brought in each day would beggar the wealthy donors she routinely contacted for her charities. And yet the ring of resolution in his tone seemed to promise more than profit. Curiosity made her narrow her eyes. “What is this prize of yours?”
    When he tilted his head, studying her, a flicker crossed his gaze—red and gold.
    Flames.
    She realized she wasn’t talking to just the lord of the castle, but to the beast in the moat as well. A shiver traced down her spine.
    “A pearl, I think,” he said softly, the flames dancing higher. “To match your hair. A living gem that poets would write into their odes and pirates would die for.”
    “Why…” The word broke in a whisper, and she cleared her throat to try again. “Why did you come down?”
    He widened his stance, his broad shoulders blocking the rest of the view. “I’ve been watching over you for a few days now. And so, I feel…”
    When he paused, she offered, “Sorry for me?” She imagined herself asleep in his cavern, vulnerable to whatever he wanted.
    His scintillating gaze fixed on hers. “Possessive.”
    The word sent a shock through her, the sensation as hot as the flames in his eyes. And as dangerous. “I don’t want to be possessed by anyone,” she objected. “I’ve had enough of that.”
    “Ah, so you have had enough. Good. So let me escort you back to your suite.” He held out the crook of his right elbow, his left arm still hidden under the cape. “And make no mistake, Esme.” When he said her name, his voice vibrated through her. “You are a prize.”
    She glanced around surreptitiously. But it was silly to think she could get away. The whole place belonged to him. And where would she go? She had the thousand dollars in her hand, but how far would that get her? Nowhere in her old world, and not very far in any other world either, she suspected.
    Besides, she’d come down here to immerse herself in the lights and chatter, and that was gone now.
    Because of him.
    She shivered, just a little, and she tried instantly to hide it, but she knew he saw.
    The sweep of his dark lashes disguised the fire in his eyes, but his offered elbow didn’t waver. “It’s late,” he said, all lordly solicitousness. “And you aren’t quite yourself yet.”
    “It’s early, actually,” she countered. “And I don’t want to be who I was.”
    She wasn’t a poet or a pirate to be bribed by his rare pearl collection, but he was inadvertently giving her something she did want.
    To change.
    She gulped down a shaky breath and slipped her hand through the crook of his arm. Because she thought she might know how to start being someone else.

Chapter 4
    Just when Bale tensed every muscle, ready to throw off the disguise of his cape and physically haul her away from the temptations of the Keep, she put her hand on his right arm.
    Her fingers almost scorched him through the heavy fabric of his shirt. The lights of the games and residual body heat of the gamers had nearly felled him when he stepped into the hall for the first time in more decades than he could easily tally.
    But her touch, the whisper of shuddering breath when she stepped beside him was worse. Just her presence pained him as every frozen nerve yearned toward her.
    To stand this close to the heart of his treasure and know that he couldn’t claim her without killing himself faster and risking the future of the Nox Incendi echoed like a hollow roar in his head.
    But he was too far gone with the stone blight, and she was too fragile to fight on his behalf.
    He might be doomed, but his clan was not if he could just hold on long enough for Rave and Piper to synthesize the treatment, hold the dragonkin together just a little longer. That was more than enough.
    In the